Aurora Publishing announced today that their next new shojo manga release, Queen of Ragtonia by Chika Shiomi, will be exclusively available at Borders Books & Music stores and online at Borders.com from March 16, 2009 through August 2009.
"We are very thrilled with the exclusive deal with Borders, for they are the biggest supporter of manga and know how manga works very well," said Nobuo Kitawaki, president of Aurora Publihsing.
As far as I know, this is a first of this kind of deal, where a U.S. manga publisher has made an agreement with a single retailer to exclusively carry a single series, and excluding of other retail outlets. But here's where a little confusion comes in. A quick check on the websites for Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Books-A-Million and RightStuf brought up Queen of Ragtonia as available for sale from all of these outlets. There's even a "Buy from Amazon" button on the Queen of Ragtonia webpage. Amazon lists the release date as March 29, 2009. I requested clarity on this, but haven't gotten a confirmation on this slightly confusing contradiction. My guess is that Borders will be the only bricks-and-mortar retail store that will be carrying this book, but Queen of Ragtonia Volume 1 will be available for sale from various online retailers.
Many manga fans will be familiar with Shiomi-sensei's supernatural shojo stories from her previously released work Canon (from CMX Manga), Night of the Beasts (from Go! Comi) and Yurara (from Shojo Beat / VIZ Media). Queen of Ragtonia is first of two new series that will be appearing this year by Shiomi-sensei. Shojo Beat / VIZ Media is releasing Rasetsu, a sequel to Yurara in June 2009.
So what's this story about? According to the press release, Queen of Ragtonia is a "remake of a doujinshi (fan comic work) that she created prior to her professional debut as a mangaartist in Japan." This supernatural-fantasy-adventure-romance series focuses on Princess Falna, a princess who is on a quest to save her kingdom from evil supernatural forces that also killed her family. Here's rest of the plot summary, courtesy of Aurora's press release:
"Princess Falna was the only member of her kingdom¹s royal family to escape the ruthless Necromancer¹s bloody attack that took the lives of her family and every one who tried to protect her. This turned her into a member of the Ragtonia, a person who has had a part of their body stolen by the Necromancer. On the brink of death, Falna is saved when she makes a pact with the spirit of a dead soldier from her kingdom. Joining forces with a sword-wielding giant and possessing the magical demon-busting sword, the Igliese, she begins her quest to kill the Necromancer, release the Ragtonia and free her country from horror and destruction."
Check out the free online preview of pages from Queen of Ragtonia or head over to Borders to pick up your copy soon.
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